Commander Raymond Burntwood of the Royal Navy has returned to England where he meets the reclusive heiress Lady Ariana Grayhart. After the scandal of a night spent dancing together, Ariana returns home to Northumberland. Raymond’s superiors—seeking information about Ariana’s father—dispatch the commander under the cover of courting the heiress.

All is not as it seems in the Grayhart household. Captain Grayhart is an invalid, the servants maintain a monkish silence, and secrets are layered upon secrets. Everyone has their own agenda, from Raymond's friend and confidante Du Bois, to the family lawyer Sir Berwick, and Ariana herself.

In the midst of it all, Raymond must unravel the truth of Captain Grayhart's decline and save Ariana's reputation and fortune. In doing so, he learns dark secrets about himself that could tear his world apart.

Excerpt

I hurried back up the aisle, looking for a break in the foliage where I could step across, but the wall of green was impenetrable. My boots clattered on the stone floor, and I almost lost my footing as I came around the corner. I caught a glimpse of a figure turning past a small forest of bare poles standing in tall thin pots.

More carefully now, I followed, watching the occasional pools of standing water and mossy patches on the uneven flags. I turned down the same space that the figure had gone and gagged. The stench was foul. I buried my nose in the elbow of my coat and stumbled backwards. My heel caught on one of the tall pots. I grabbed at the pole to catch my balance, but it swayed away under my weight and snapped. I fell heavily on the floor, a length of cane in my hand and the other canes clattering against each other in mock applause.

I stood gingerly, wincing against the sharp pain of a blossoming bruise. The intake of the foul miasma hit me like a blow. I took a few cautious steps, using the length of cane as a walking stick.

We had taken a pirate laden with slaves and bound for Port of Spain once. The Thame had stumbled on him by chance on the high seas, and did some damage before a long chase commenced. The pirates had given up looking after their cargo for some days by the time we finally overcame them and boarded the ship.

In the hold, we had found a hundred souls dead, and only a handful alive. They were barely recognisable as men in their filth and malnutrition, packed into the darkness with death. We took the survivors on board and burned the shattered remains of the ship with its grisly contents. Some nights the smell of that hold haunted me. And now, I had found it once more in a stuffy corner of this oppressive glasshouse.

My mind reeled between the present and past. Before me, a row of corpses slowly decayed into the boards of a ship’s hold. I doubled over and retched up scalding bile. I spat to clear my mouth and squeezed my eyes shut against the vision. Minutes passed before I dared to look up again.

Before me were rows upon rows of noxious-looking fungi. They grew in shallow trays of straw-flecked manure, distended stems rising to lopsided caps. The sickly dark-yellow colour was deeply unwholesome, similar to the lantern lit bodies of the dead slaves. The fungi varied from six inches to a foot tall, and the mature ones seemed to be the same across.

At least eight tables laden were with these trays. Oozing stems showed some had been recently harvested. I reached out my hand in horrified fascination. Something in their vile shape called out to be squeezed. Two soft footsteps fell behind me, and a strong hand gripped my wrist.

About the Author

Ali Abbas is a writer, photographer, and carpenter from London. He has travelled widely but still lives in the suburb where he was born. It's hard to explain what he does for a living, the common term is Policy Wonk.

My life as a small town gal kept me cautious, but I wanted to go travel the world, be free and not stuck in a bubble. I traveled through the states and kept moving until I got to Vegas. Flashing lights, casinos and the man in Armani who made traffic stop with his sparkling smile… A smile I quickly learned belonged to the devil.

Not anyone else’s devil – he was my devil.

Then, my world came to a crashing halt one night – the night my life went from dangerous to ready to flatline.

On the ride of my life, I went back to the past I’d abandoned years before. Back to the past that has never been the past. It could have been the present but I was too stubborn to see it.

Last night I was out with the boys. A night out, drinking - only one beer for me, since I was on duty the next morning - and a few tables of pool. Trevor, his brother Peter, and a few others were yucking it up at a scratch I made when Drew came barreling into the bar. The look on his face made me move from the table and meet him halfway. What in the hell had happened now? Everything had been quiet here over the last couple of years. Ever since his then girlfriend - now wife - Dani Lynn had been kidnapped. Quiet was good. That look said shit was about to get real though.

“What’s that look for?” I asked as he looked around at the faces in the bar. My brow arched and when he looked at me, I sawthatlook. I had seen it before. “What? Has something happened at my mom and dad’s?”

“Alana is fine,” he paused as I stepped closer. “Charlie, it’s Anna. Dani Lynn needs you at the center. That’s all I- She’s with Anna… and she’s hurt. That’s all I know.”

“Anna?” I turned to see Trevor standing there, his face a hard wall of nothing. The boy was good at hiding shit, but I saw that look in his eyes. He still loved her. I knew that much. He’d said it before, but until that moment, I hadn’t seen it.

“I’ll be right there,” I said as I turned and lunged past Trevor, grabbing my shit from the table and jogging out to my bike. “Go, Drew, I’ll meet you there.”

Drew nodded and slipped into the car. I took a deep breath and called my dad. As the phone rang, Trevor and Peter came out. They stopped while I waited for someone to pick up. No answer. I cursed and slid my phone into my pocket. I looked up at them.

“If you’re coming, hurry the fuck up,” I said, starting up my bike. I revved it a minute before pulling out onto the road. The three block ride took only minutes. Thank God. My heart was racing as I ran up the walkway. When I hit the door I saw Mama Jay there, a deep frown on her chubby face. She opened the door and let us in. We followed Mama Jay down the back hallway towards the office and exam area. My heart was already thudding, but it skyrocketed when I saw Dani Lynn with tears on her cheeks, covered in blood. “What happened?” I asked her as I stopped before her.

“I-I don’t know,” she swiped at her eyes and put on her game face as she looked up at us. She glanced from me to Trevor and back to me. When I nodded she continued. “I was leaving to head home,” she sighed. “I saw someone stumbling down the sidewalk. When she collapsed I ran to her… there was blood everywhere…” she shook her head and I rested my hand on her shoulder.

~Meet Barb Shuler~

I’m a Carolina Girl by right and a Texan by birth. Best of both worlds. I have the brass sass to keep up with my Texas sized temper. Living and working in both states i’ve learned a lot about hard work, adapting to your surroundings and making the best of the path that you have been led down. My grandma Dollie once told me I would know what I was meant to do when it happened. She was right, as always.

As with most book lovers, I am an avid reader. Reading has always been a hobby - a passion, really and a way to get lost in other people’s lives, their drama and other worlds. It’s a private movie in your imagination that you get to cast and navigate through, at your own pace. Reading helps to expand the perimeters of one's mind. That is what got me into writing. Writing has been something that I have done since I was a kid. If I had paper, I was writing. Nine out of ten times it made no sense but what are words if they are not to be used to your advantage? Words are a part of us all. Why not use them, right?

During the day I work as a ‘desk jockey’ and help the residents of my county navigate themselves around our little, but not too little country town. By night I am either blogging with my best friends, doing PA work for some of my favorite authors or fighting with the voices in my head. They can be stubborn at times. It’s a blessing and I am cherishing every moment. Tomorrow is never guaranteed so I want to make sure I live the day as fully as possible. For what is my creation, can become someone else's treasure.

There are moments in time that stand out more than others: your first kiss, a special birthday party, seeing your baby for the first time, an intimate conversation, a first date, even something as little as sitting around a dining room table with friends. This is the story of the moments that stood out after I first laid eyes on Noah Gish. ~ Claire Sawyer

The city, it used to be a place I loved and missed with an ache in my gut. It was home. The place where I grew up, where I had fun, where I had my friends, where life was as good as I knew it to be. Then I was shipped off to a place that begins the story of how I fell in love, just to screw everything up. ~ Noah Gish

About the Author

Literature is my passion. I like to challenge myself and grow in my writings. I have many unfinished books and some that have been published under a different name.

My passions include the arts: music, photography, writing, dance, painting, films, architecture—anything that is creation. There is not much I don't like; and if I don't like it, I at least appreciate the process it took place to create it. This is something incorporated in all my books.

In my spare time, I enjoy being out in nature, travelling, spending time with family, and reading. I read everything, from contemporary to paranormal, and history to science. Learning is something very important to me.

From New York Times bestseller Katy Regnery comes a new twist on a beloved fairytale.

A fisherman’s daughter.

The governor’s son.

Two very different worlds.

In this modern retelling of The Little Mermaid, a fisherman’s daughter from an Outer Banks island untouched by time, meets the son of North Carolina’s governor at a fancy party where she’s working.

Laire, who wants so much more from life than her little island can offer, is swept away by wealthy, sophisticated Erik, who is, in turn, entranced by her naiveté and charm. The two spend a whirlwind summer together that ends on the knife-point of heartbreak and forces them to go their separate ways.

Years later, when fate leads them back to one another, they will discover the terrifying depth of the secrets they kept from each other, and learn that shattered hearts can only be healed by a love that willfully refuses to die.

All novels Katy Regnery’s ~a modern fairytale~ collection are written as fundraisers. 10% of the e-book sales for in March and April 2017 will be donated to P.E.O. International, a non-profit organization that celebrates the advancement of women, awards scholarships and grants, and provides motivation for women to make their dreams come true.

**Contemporary Romance. Due to profanity, adult themes and very strong sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.**

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Don’t Speak is part of the ~a modern fairytale~ collection, which includes six standalone, completely unrelated novels inspired by beloved fairy tales:

The Vixen and the Vet (Beauty & the Beast) – available now
Never Let You Go (Hansel & Gretel) – available now
Ginger’s Heart (Little Red Riding Hood) – available now
Dark Sexy Knight (Camelot) – available now
Don’t Speak (The Little Mermaid) – available soon
Swan Song (The Ugly Duckling) – available late-2017

Had she known the ultimate cost of that simple glance heavenward, maybe she wouldn’t have stopped. Maybe she would have just kept on walking with her head down. But fate held no warnings for Laire Maiden Cornish.

Shielding her eyes, she looked up at a deck wrapped around the second floor of the mansion, waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust as he came into view.

There, in the glittering sunlight . . . a boy.

No, a man.

A young man, a little older than she, tall and muscular, with jet-black hair and a square jaw, dark brown eyes, and a deep tan. He wore a robin’s-egg blue bathing suit with Kelly green palm fronds in a small repeat and a pair of sunglasses buried in his thick hair. In one hand, he held a phone up to his ear, and in the other, he slowly swirled a glass filled with ice and clear liquid. He stared out at the sound, concentrating on his call.

“Hey!” he yelled. “Can you hear me now?” He huffed with annoyance, pulling the phone away from his ear and squinting at it before trying again. “Pete? It’s Erik. Can you hear me?” He set the glass down on the balcony’s wooden railing and gave his phone his full attention. Staring down at it, he muttered, “Shit. No reception.”

It’s Erik.

Erik.

His name is Erik.

Feeling a sharp burn in her lungs, Laire realized she’d been holding her breath and sucked in a huge gulp of air as she stared up at him, frozen in the moment, utterly mesmerized.

She had never seen a more perfect, more handsome person in her entire life.

The sun glinted off his dark hair and wrapped his body in gold, making him appear godlike so very far above her. Were she the type to swoon, Laire imagined she would have been a puddle of goopy longing on the ground below him, content to sacrifice her pride for a glimpse at his beauty.

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.

Twenty-five books later, Katy claims authorship of the multi-titled, New York Times and USA Today Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling ~a modern fairytale~ series; and several other standalone novels and novellas.

Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s boxed set, The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1-4, became a New York Times E-book bestseller.

In 2016, Katy signed a print-only agreement with Spencerhill Press. As a result, her Blueberry Lane paperback books will now be distributed to brick and mortar bookstores all over the United States.

Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese kitten create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.

"Patricia Potter writes about troubled pasts in an emphatic way. I could easily understand the emotions of her main characters. What I loved about The SEAL's Return the most is the way she writes about animals. . . . The SEAL's Return is a captivating story about both people and animals and I enjoyed reading it very much."

When I started writing “A Soldier’s Promise,” the first in my Home to Covenant Falls series, I knew I had a problem. All my other books were set in an actual place: Atlanta that I knew well, Memphis that I knew nearly as well, Boston that I had visited many times. But now I was writing a book in which a small town is a character in the book. I wanted it to be a little quirky, and quite obviously I couldn’t use a real one where everyone knows everyone. The only solution was to build my own town.

"Sometimes what you are not looking for, is just what you need most in the world! Patricia Potter takes us on an emotional journey of healing as we head back to Covenant Falls, Colorado to see the latest veteran to plan on just passing through and end up finding more than he was even looking for!"

I like to create the perfect couple by creating the two people who are decidedly imperfect for each other.

When I start a book, I usually have a hero – or heroine – in mind and then visualize the polar opposite. My new book is a perfect example. I hope I have readers wonder how these two can ever resolve their differences.

She looked up to see two men enter Maude’s. One was Eve’s husband. The other man caused her breath to catch in her throat.Lisa didn’t know why, exactly. It wasn’t because he was cover-model handsome. But there was something about him that was strikingly different.

"I really enjoyed this story especially about a wounded hero who put his own suffering aside to help another.How could you not fall in love with a fellow like that?It really reminds you there is Hope and Joy for all of us within our reach.An enjoyable story about love and sacrifice that tugged at the readers emotions."

"The characters are ones you want to get to know and see good things happen to. I love how the author has Lisa as a caring and not a judgmental person. She cares a great deal for people. Jubal is always there for Gordon when he really needs someone. I like how everyone interacts and makes the story a real page turner."

"This is a story of hope, belonging and finding that one true love that will heal all wounds, past and present. I will be going back and grabbing up books 1-3 if they are all as amazing as this book! Jubal’s character stole my heart instantly. Lisa’s character was chiseled perfectly, in my opinion. Definitely a keeper, if you ask me! This book is deserving of 4.5 stars and the highest “hats off” praises you can give!"

With a terrifying ordeal behind him, former navy SEAL Jubal Pierce was supposed to stay in Covenant Falls, Colorado, for only a day or two. That's it. He's not prepared to put down roots here—no matter how intriguing the town's new doctor happens to be. Not to mention Dr. Lisa Redding's teen brother is on a troubled path that's all too familiar. Suddenly Jubal finds himself entangled in the community and with deep, unfamiliar feelings for Lisa. But maybe a little detour is just what a warrior needs to find his true purpose…and true love.

Patricia Potter is the USA Today Bestselling Author of more than fifty books. She has received numerous writing awards, including RT Storyteller of the Year, its Career Achievement Award for Western Historical Romance and its Best Hero of the Year Award. She is a seven-time RITA finalist and three-time Maggie Award winner. She has served as president of Romance Writers of America. The SEAL’s Return is her fourteenth book for Harlequin.

Prior to writing fiction, she was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal and president of a public relations firm.

Becca Thornton is clueless when it comes to love. Why else would she break up with Will Gamen, a boy at the top of the hottie short list for every other girl?

Because, if she’s being totally honest, Becca will admit the truth. Her heart belongs to someone else. For as long as she can remember, Travis Brennen has been unavailable. When Travis unexpectedly rolls back into town, Becca realizes for the first time that her feelings for him might be mutual. But Travis and Becca come from what he calls “different circumstances.” Becca’s parents are world-famous scientists and Travis’s dad is the caretaker on the Thornton family’s estate. Still, Becca can’t change the way she feels about him, no matter how hard her parents try to keep them apart. She’ll just need to find a way to prove to her parents that Travis isn’t the guy they’ve always assumed him to be. Becca’s earned the right to grow up, make her own choices, and fall in love, even if she ends up with a broken heart.

Author Bio

Jennifer DiGiovanni is a freelance writer and YA author of the School Dayz series. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, working on home design projects, or trying to meet the daily goals on her Fitbit. She also likes to try new sports and activities, from archery to ballroom dancing, with varying degrees of success.

Author Bio

Jennifer DiGiovanni is a freelance writer and YA author of the School Dayz series. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading, working on home design projects, or trying to meet the daily goals on her Fitbit. She also likes to try new sports and activities, from archery to ballroom dancing, with varying degrees of success.

The responsible brother, John Callaway, spends most of his days locked away in his office, crunching numbers and placing orders. When a mysterious brunette rolls into town, he is immediately drawn to her. For a year, John has worked hard at earning her trust, hoping one day she’ll lower her walls enough to let him in.

Finally finding a home in Montana, Abby Johnson is the happiest she’s ever been working at the diner and spending time with the one person who’s shown her that good men exist. When her past catches up with her, Abby will have to trust the man she’s grown to care for to keep her safe, or she’ll risk losing everything.

Will her secret push John away or will Abby realize that love is always worth fighting for?

Kaithlin Shepherd was born and raised in Canada where she learned to figure skate and crafted a love affair with coffee. Growing up in a household filled by strong-headed women, she learned early on that life is what you make it. You’ve probably never met a bigger country music fan and in the words of Brooks and Dunn, she’s a die-hard ‘George Strait junkie.’ Constructing a world away from her real life, Kaithlin loves the feeling of creating a universe where her fans can forget about everything in their life. She loves writing about hot alphas and doesn’t shy away from turning up the heat with scorching hot sex scenes.

Once they’d do anything to keep her safe. Now they’ll do anything to kill her.

The discovery of a genetically twisted corpse on her latest stepfather’s ranch in the Badlands of Forsaken triggers a desperate and brutal race against time for eighteen-year-old con artist Ariel Tesla when her loving stepbrothers are turned into monstrous killers with a single purpose: to hunt Ariel down and destroy her.

Running for her life, the one person she can turn to for help is the last person in the galaxy she can trust, former mark Hale Carrow. She needs a ship to get off the planet, fast; he wants revenge on the girl who broke his heart.

To save the family she never thought she wanted, she’s going to have to gamble on the boy she betrayed, or no-one’s life will ever be the same.

The human body can only handle so much stress. Ariel knew how this went. If she stopped, she wouldn’t be able to start again. She’d crash, and then she’d be at the mercy of anyone or anything that came along. Despite the danger of stopping, she found her steps slowing. It wasn’t, however, the exhausted halt she battled with every step, nor the jagged, stumbling, end-of-the-line finish she yearned for. It was a graceful, taut arrest of movement, up on the balls of her feet, body quivering, nerves screaming.

The mech shed was in sight, a shade beyond comfortable sprinting distance, dead ahead. She was out in the open, visible from every angle. Flat land stretched around her, rising to bluffs ahead and to her left. She turned, poised and scanning, all exhaustion forgotten.

A full circle sweep. Nothing. She stared over at the bluffs and jumped with a punch of sudden shock when a group of ferrokirrim broke over the ridge and bounded down the slope, scattering scree. A mother and her almost full-grown cubs, she registered. Heading right for her.

They’d take her down in a second. She’d be dead a second after that. In half an hour, she’d be a memory. She wasn’t ready to be a memory. She wasn’t ready for any of this, damn it. She bent her knees as they thundered her way, all the while thinking, What, are you going to wrestle them? There was nothing on the planet of Forsaken fiercer than a mother looking out for her cubs. Ariel braced.

They ran past her.

They ran right past, giving her a wide berth. She felt the mother’s eyes flick over her, dismiss her, then urge her cubs on with a spine-ruffling grunt.

Ariel straightened slowly, staring after them. They were running away from something.

What in hell would scare off a mother ferrokirrim?

A rock bounced down the scree slope.

Ariel counted the strikes. Three, then silence again. She did not want to turn and see what had knocked it loose. She didn’t have a choice. She turned.

Author Bio:

Kate Carter writes science fiction and fantasy, and lives in the UK. You can stay up to date with Kate's books through her Amazon author page.

About the Book

Title: Allerleirauh

Author: Chantal Gadoury

Genre: Historical Fantasy, Fairytale Retelling

Long ago in the kingdom of Tranen, a king makes a promise to his dying wife to remarry only a woman who possesses her same golden hair. With time, the wicked king finds his attentions are captured by his maturing daughter. With her father’s dastardly intentions at her door post, Princess Aurelia wards off his advances by requesting impossible gifts…. Dresses created by the sun, moon and stars and a coat made of a thousand furs.

By the hands of horrible magic, the king is successful and the dresses are delivered and Aurelia decides to sacrifice her privileged life. She escapes her kingdom, the only home she’s ever known, disguised with a cloak and a new name, “Allerleirauh.”

Aurelia enters the safe haven of the kingdom of Saarland der Licht, where she is taken under the care of the handsome and gentle Prince Klaus. Hoping to not be discovered by her father’s courtiers, Aurelia tries to remain hidden under her new false identity. Unexpected love is challenged between Aurelia and Prince Klaus with an approaching arranged marriage between the heir of Saarland der Licht and the neighboring ruler’s daughter. With danger and heartache hanging in the air, Aurelia must face the troubles of her past and her fears for the future in her journey of self-discovery.

Based on the Grimm Brothers’ Fairy Tale “Allerleirauh.”

Author Bio

Chantal is a 2011 graduate from Susquehanna University with a degree in Creative Writing. Since graduation, she has published three novels: “Seven Seeds of Summer” in March of 2014 with Waldorf Publishing, “The Songs in Our Hearts,” to be released in the Summer of 2017 with 48Fourteen Publishing, and “Allerleirauh,” which is to be re-released in a new edition by Parliament House Publishing, August 2017.

Peter is plotting his retaliation against the latest bombing. Neverland needs an army, and Peter Pan is certain children will join him once they know what is at stake. The lost boys and girls are planning an invasion in suburbia to recruit, but in order to deliver their message, they will need the help of an old and dangerous associate—the infamous Pied Piper.

Hunting him down will require a spy in in the real world, and Gwen soon finds herself in charge of locating the Piper and cutting an uncertain deal with him. She isn’t sure if Peter trusts her that much, or if he’s just trying to keep her away from him in Neverland. Are they friends, or just allies? But Peter might not even matter now that she’s nearly home and meeting with Jay again.

The Piper isn’t the only one hiding from the adults’ war on magic though, and when Gwen goes back to reality, she’ll have to confront one of Peter’s oldest friends… and one of his earliest enemies.

They found the forest’s hiking trail moments before breaking the tree line. “Where are we going, Peter?” He was heading toward a mobile home community next to the state park.

He continued to walk with confidence. His usual cocky stride looked surprisingly like the swagger of an ordinary teenage boy. “My friend lives here. Don’t worry. Don’t look like such a stranger here.”

She didn’t want to appear conspicuous, but Gwen was too baffled to help it. The unkempt lawns were boxed in by chain-link fences covered in varying degrees of rust. They passed a lawn littered with bicycles; on the other side of the gravel street, two different cars were parked on the lawn, clearly non-functional. Satellite dishes were on every trailer home. Despite all being painted differently, the track housing still managed to present a uniformity of depressing color.

Multiple houses had motorcycles out front or a dog milling around their yard. When she and Peter passed a pack of Rottweilers, the dogs ran up to the fence and began snarling until all the other dogs in the neighborhood were barking too. “Ignore it,” Peter advised her.

She was scared. This was not the sort of place she ever expected to visit with Peter. She didn’t trust his ability to protect her here. This wasn’t his world, but it wasn’t hers either. They were both out of their element. Peter just didn’t have the sense to realize it.

Winding down the gravel road, Gwen matched Peter’s pace almost step for step. They approached a blue-and-grey house. Like the others, it had wooden latticework around the bottom to help obscure the fact it didn’t have a foundation in the ground. The square house reminded Gwen of how she would take shoeboxes and try to turn them into homes for her dolls by decorating them. It was hard to fathom that she was walking up the plastic steps of the porch to knock on the door.

She waited, feeling her heartbeat in her throat, her toes, and everywhere besides her chest. Even the predictable noise of the door opening startled her.

A woman with a long, black braid and beige cardigan stood in the doorway. Gwen looked up at her, and then watched as the sharp features of her dark face dissolved into unadulterated shock.

“Peter?”

The startled woman ushered them in. She was just as uncomfortable with their presence in the trailer park as Gwen. Once inside, they stood in a living room full of old furniture, facing a kitchen with old electric appliances. There was no unity or romance to the orange recliner, chipped mixing bowl, off-white blender, dull toaster, and sunken couch. It was a bunch of old stuff that looked like it represented several decades of objects abandoned at Goodwill. The chingadera and bric-a-brac wasn’t any more cohesive: porcelain angles, an antique pot, a vase full of bird feathers, and a stopped clock made the place confusing and strange in the same way her grandmother’s house had been.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed, pulling her cardigan close and tossing her thick braid over her shoulder and out of her way. She had a shapeless housedress underneath the beige sweater, and a pair of black leggings insulating her legs as she stomped around, heavy-footed in her leather slippers. She looked comfortable, except for the unexpected guests who were putting her so ill at ease. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I need your help,” Peter said.

“They’re still keeping tabs on me.”

“That’s why I came in disguise.”

“You’re being irresponsible. You’re jeopardizing us both, and Neverland to boot.”

“I took all the right precautions. This is important.” Hollyhock and Foxglove wrestled their way out of the pixie purse and came twinkling out now that they knew they were safely inside.

“You brought fairies here?” she exclaimed. She leaned down and grabbed a hold of his arm, forcing him to look her dead in her dark eyes. Gwen wanted to leave. This wasn’t a friend, not anymore. This was a grown-up, and unlike Antoine the aviator, she was not amused with Peter’s wartime antics.

“What happens if they figure it out and come to question me?”

Peter scoffed. “You won’t tell them.”

“What if they threaten to arrest me? They could put me away forever until I told them what they needed to know, and nobody here would stop them.”
Peter broke free of her hold with ease; she wasn’t actually trying to restrain him. “Preposterous,” he declared. “If they did that, you would sit, stone-faced and silent in your cell until they all died.”

“What if they beat me?”

“You’d take the blows as though you were made of rock, and you would not speak.” Peter seemed to disregard the question.

“What if they tortured me and stuck blades under my nails?” she demanded.

“Then you would not even scream, but stay silent as a stone!” Peter insisted, hopping up onto a wooden kitchen chair at her dining table, looking down at the woman.

“What if they bring knives and cut off my fingers, one at a time, until I told them how to find you?”

Peter yelled right back, “Then you would steal their knives and scalp them all like the redskin princess you are!”

Her anger slunk off her face and out of her shoulders. She shook her head, frowning as a sad laugh escaped her. She clung to her sweater, blinking back tears, until, at last, she flung her arms around Peter. Still on the chair, he had to bend down to return the embrace.

“Oh, Peter,” she muttered, unaware of the tears slipping off her smiling face. “Oh, Peter.”

“It’s good to see you, Tiger Lily.”

Author Bio:

Audrey Greathouse is a lost child in a perpetual and footloose quest for her own post-adolescent Neverland. Originally from Seattle, she earned her English B.A. from Southern New Hampshire University's online program while backpacking around the west coast and pretending to be a student at Stanford. A pianist, circus artist, fire-eater, street mime, swing dancer, and novelist, Audrey wears many hats wherever she is. She has grand hopes for the future which include publishing more books and owning a crockpot. You can find her at audreygreathouse.com.